The Grand Old Duke of York
by Cat 2
Summary: Booth's past as a sniper threatens to catch up with him. this is my first attempt at a Bones fan fic so please R
1. Chapter 1 Prologue

**Disclaimer: Bones and all related characters are property of Fox, Hart Hanson and Kathy Reichs. Wolf is based on a charcter in the Alex Rider series and as such is copyright to the author. Cat is my own creation. this is a work of fan fic, so no profits are made**

The Grand Old Duke of York

Prologue

Her voice woke him. At first he thought it was part of the nightmares, like the heat, the gunfire and the screams. Then he realised that it was real and nearby.

He got to his feet, eyes scanning the apartment until he saw the red light of the answering machine blinking at him.

So she hadn't invaded his home. Yet.

"Booth. It's me. Pick up the phone. I know you're there."

He snorted and got a glass of water.

"Booth. This is important!" she sounded impatient, desperate even.

"If you don't talk to me soon, I'll come to you!"

Walking over he unplugged the machine and took the phone off the hook. He then walked back to his bed.

"So the marks on the skull were due to decomposition, not mutilation?" Booth asked, pushing open the door of the diner.

Dr Temperance "bones" Brenan nodded.

"The marks are consistent with that."

She probably said more, but he didn't hear her. Because at that moment he saw her. Sitting with Wolf at a table only a few yards from him, drinking a soft drink.

Ignoring Bones he pushed over to the table.

"What are you doing here?"  
"Nice to see you too booth." She replied, slurping with her straw in the same way Parker did. He hated her for that. It gave her an innocence that she was not entitled to.

"What are you doing here?"  
"Like I told you, if you won't come to us, we'll have to come to you."  
"Who's the Dame?" Wolf asked running his eyes over Bones. She thankfully seemed unaware of it, having just spotted the rest of the squints.

"You leave her out of this!"  
"Maybe we should go talk to her." She observed stirring her drink with her straw, making the ice clatter against the glass. "She might be interested in what we have to say."  
"You wouldn't…" her head shot up and their eyes met. He knew she would.

"Not here." he hissed angrily.

"Where?" she demanded. That was good. It meant she was prepared to meet him half way.

"Here" he said, scribbling the address of a bar on a napkin. A bar a long way from here. Where they wouldn't meet bones.

"In an hour."  
She took the napkin from him

"In one hour." There was no mistaking the threat in her voice.


	2. Chapter 1

**D****isclaimer: Bones and all related characters are property of Fox, Hart Hanson and Kathy Reichs. Wolf is based on a character in the Alex Rider series and as such is copyright to the author. ****Cat**** is my own creation. This is a work of fan fic, so no profits are made. **

**Disclaimer 2: I know very little about the military, and**** have never been through the experiences they share, if anyone has any problems with it, or considers it insensitive, please let me know. Also if I make any major mistakes, please inform me kindly. I hope this is enjoyed.**

Chapter 1

The bar was smoky; something the red light seemed to heighten.

Once he would have thought nothing of coming here after work, but that was another lifetime ago, a life time she was connected with.

He could still remember the first time he saw her.

He'd been told to report to a British base, to meet his partner for a mission. All he'd been given was the codename Cat.

When he arrived at the base, he'd been told Cat was on the firing range. He walked in and seeing only a rough looking guy, who he'd later know as Wolf of the SAS, and a young woman, he approached the guy. But he'd shook his head, indicating behind him with a wave of his hands. There was only the woman left.

"Cat?" he asked uncertainly.

She was nearly as tall as him, with a face and arms bronzed by the sun. She merely looked at him, then lifted her rifle. She had hit a perfect hundred on every target on the range before she turned to face him.

"yeah." She said. "I'm Cat."

Then she smiled. He could still see that smile. A smile that had kept him and countless others going when things were rough.

The smile was absent now. Like Bones you had to know Cat to read her emotions, and she was scared.

"Booth." Cat had spotted him and got to her feet. "I'm sorry. For earlier. We were way out of line."Booth shrugged, taking a seat.

Wolf spoke then. "Haven't ordered. Didn't know what you'd want.""How 'bout the truth."

Her eyebrows arched, but she did not deny it.

"That oblivious Huh?"

"To someone who knows you, yeah."

She nodded, adjusting her position subtly so that they were hidden.

"Look at these" she said, sliding some files on to his lap, "and tell me if we're nuts."

_An Secret American-British Base, Somewhere near Washington D.C._

_He was drunk. Not falling down drunk, but enough to get the riot act read to him by command, or by __Cat__ for that matter when she came back. Screw them._

_She and Wolf had been gone nearly 3 hours. Had they said where..? Oh Yeah to meet that yank __Cat__ had met in Kosovo. The former Ranger. He chuckled slightly. They still thought they could fight it. He knew they couldn't._

_"Sometimes the end is peace." Where had he read that before? It didn't matter. There was no peace for one such as him. _

_He grabbed the bottle. _

_Hmp. Empty. Just Another dead soldier. Just like..._

_NO! He flung the bottle against the wall, ignoring the sound of breaking glass. He wouldn't think. He couldn't think!_

_He didn't' hear the explosion. He merely welcomed the peace that it brought._

The bar. "So" Cat asked, as he finished the last file. "What'd you think?"

He thought a lot of things. About the files, about her and about the past they shared. But he knew what she meant, and what she needed to hear.

"4 deaths in as many months. All former soldiers. Different units, different branches, different countries, different methods of murder. Only connection all saw action in the...""In the province we worked." Cat finished, still watching him.

"Could be coincidence." He said, leaning back, determined to pay her for his lost sleep, and earlier. He saw her face fall.

No matter what she might tell command or anyone else about wanting to be proved wrong, she knew she wasn't. And she needed someone in her corner.

He relented. "But I don't think so."The smile was back on her face again, but this time it was intermingled with relief. Wolf was also smiling, though that may have been more to do with Cat been happy again than any real opinion.

"Thing is then." Wolf observed, draining his glass. "What are we going to do about it?"


	3. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: Bones and all related characters are property of Fox, Hart Hanson and Kathy Reichs. Wolf is based on a character in the Alex Rider series and as such is copyright to the author. Cat is my own creation. this is a work of fan fic, so no profits are made**

Chapter 2

"Victim is male, aged approximately to 20 o 30 years, evidence of multiple fractures. Both pre and post mortem. "

"Most of these injuries are ten to twenty years old," Zack said, running his eyes over the bones.

"Cobra always had the devil's own luck." The woman who said this, stood at the entrance to lab with a security guard beside her. She looked over at the remains with no emotions.

"The medical records you requested." As she lent over, the file in her hand, she looked familiar. In fact Bones have sworn that she'd seen her somewhere before.

"Command apologises for the delay, but they felt you'd understand." Brennan scanned her in and Cat stepped in, holding out the file.

"Guy survives getting blown up 4 times in Kosovo, 2 tours in Iraq, then comes to the US and dies in an explosion!" the bitterness in her voice was obvious and she seemed to realise it. "Sorry it's been a rough night." She placed the file down next to the remains and turned to leave.

As she headed over to the exit she ran into Booth. His face turned white with rage.

"Relax booth" she said. "I'm just dropping off the file on Cobra. I presume you heard he was dead."

"You. Stay. Away. From. Bones. "Booth said, rage in every word.

Cat's eyes flashed. "You can't stand that my actions saved our lives."  
"Get Out!" booth snarled.

"fine." Cat said, calmly turning to leave, "but she continued, pausing by the door. "You're going to be seeing a lot more of me."

She smiled at the look on Booth's face.

"I've just been appointed to liaise between your investigation and ours. So" she said as she turned to leave. "You and yours "Bones" are going to be seeing a lot of me." She smiled as she left.


	4. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: Bones and all related characters are property of Fox, Hart Hanson and Kathy Reichs. Wolf is based on a character in the Alex Rider series and as such is copyright to the author. Cat is my own creation. This is a work of fan fic, so no profits are made**

**Author's note. Sorry the last chapter was so short. I am doing my best to make them longer, but am hampered by the busyness of the season. Reviews make the work go faster (hint, hint). Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far and to anyone whose joined us more recently enjoy!**

Chapter 3

2 hours later

"What does that mean in English?" the man asked, running his hands over his shaved head.

"It means, Wolf that he was already dead when the fire started." Cat said, frustrated. This was about the tenth or eleventh time she had to translate what the team had said. If the expression on her face was any guide, when she looked at Booth, she wanted some help.

"Thank heavens for small mercies," said another man, playing with a medallion of some sort around his neck.

The men sat in a group at one end of the table. They had been introduced as Wolf, Fox, Snake, and Eagle, but which was which none of the team, except possibly Booth, was sure which one was which. Cat gave a short brisk nod. Booth's dislike of her presence, coupled with the level of language used was trying her patience and affecting everyone.

"Anything else?"

"Yes." Dr Temperance Brennan spoke up. "Was it normal for C-"

"COBRA!" Cat said with force.

"Fine. Was it normal for Cobra to have a blood alcohol of 1.6?"

"What's that in real terms?" asked the youngest of the team.

"Double the legal limit." Cat replied.

The men exchanged uneasy looks with each other, while Cat stared on a level with Booth, challenging him.

"Normally no." the man who Brennan had marked as the leader and Alpha Male of the group spoke. "But he had been drinking more than usual recently." He looked at Booth, then surprisingly at Zach for support. "Things had been rough recently."

He did not expand, and his stare appeared to warn his men to silence.

"There's something else." A man looking like a buffed up computer geek spoke up, his eyes resting on his senior officer. "For a few weeks, since we got back really Cobra had been really wounded up, on edge. Like he was dreading something. Kept talking about the end, saying it was peace, like he knew what was happening." He lapsed into silence before speaking again. "He also had real hatred of that nursery rhyme, The Grand Old Duke of York. Kept getting phone call, just someone repeating that rhyme, especially the part about "he march them down again." He shook his head. "I just thought he was losing it. Now I…I don't know."


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

_Kosovo the past, 21__st__ October_

_The sun beat down. It wasn't even midday yet and already the cave was stifling hot. __Jake Holloway shifted, trying to retreat away from the mouth, where it was cooler, but at the same time avoiding the remains._

_"They're just bones." Cat said. She lay on a ledge at the mouth of the cave, gazing out across the dirt track that ran opposite them. She hadn't appeared to move for the last hour, which given the space involved was a good thing._

_The cave had been designed to hold a family of three. It now held their mortal remains, and 3 special force agents. Jake moved back again, this time dislodging a skull, which shattered on the earth floor. Both men jumped. Cat ducked her head to stifle a laugh._

_"Hey, you know what it's sensible to nervous in a situation like this. That, that could tell them where we are," _

_Cat turned her head a couple of inches to face Seeley Booth, who lay in position just an inch from her. __"I think we're high enough up not to worry." She said. Indeed the cave was nearly 20 feet away from the road, which they watched._

_Suddenly Cat tensed. _

_"Target in sight."_

_Booth shifted, lining himself up for the shot. The target was indeed in site. He looked so innocent, taking an opportunity to have a nap, as his convoy moved though this deserted region. It was hard to believe that he was capable of the acts that they'd seen __in the flesh, less than a mile from here._

_"You're not going to get a better chance than that." Cat observed, leaning in. "shoot the SOB and let's get out of here."_

Outside the Jeffersonian institute. The present

"So what's his problem?" Fox asked, drawing heavily on his cigarette and survey the lush grounds of the Jeffersonian

"Who the bug guy?" Wolf asked. "Just think he likes his work-"

"Not him." Fox said dismissively. "The FBI guy. What's his problem with Cat?"

Wolf tensed, angry that his guys had picked up on the tension.

"He doesn't have one." He said shortly.

The men snorted.

"So what's your history with Booth?" Angela asked, as they waited for the Angelator to finish reconstructing Cobra skull.

Cat shrugged.

"We worked together in Kosovo." She said, never taking her eyes off the screen.

"And..."

Cat shrugged again. "Nothing to tell. We worked together. It ended badly. End of story."

"Then why does he hate you?"

Cat got up. "There seems to be no doubt the body was Cobra. I'll let my superiors know." At the door she paused. "As for my history with Seeley Booth, I've told you all I can without killing you." She left

Booth was sitting on his own in the diner when Wolf found him several hours later. He slid down opposite them and for a moment neither of them spoke.

"You and Cat need to make up." Wolf said simply. "You both want and need to know who did this."

Booth snorted.

"You used to be good friends." Wolf continued. "She could use one now."

Against his will Booth was interested. It must have shown in his face, because Wolf continued.

"Her partner died bout 2 weeks ago. And she ain't sure how."

Cat was sitting alone at the bar, gazing into the swirls in the glass of scotch in her hand.

"Thought you didn't drink." Booth observed, sitting down next to her. Cat shrugged.

"I don't. I've had one sip and I feel sick. Don't' think I'm drunk though."

"Yeah?"

Cat nodded. "I still feel."

"Weren't you the one who told me that pain was good? That pain meant you were still alive."

"ouch." Cat replied, returning her glass to the bar.

"Wolf told about your partner. You ..." he paused uncertain. "Want to talk about it?"

Cat gazed at her hands and spoke very quietly.

"We were on a roof top out east, fighting a terrorist cell. We'd been tracking them for 3 weeks and finally cornered them. Eventually there was only one left. The others were dead. He was fighting with dog, my partner. Had him in a headlock at the roof's edge. I shot him. He fell off, taking dog with him." she had bunched her hands into fists; a sign Booth knew meant that she was trying to control them. Stop them shaking.

"He'd managed to grab the edge, when I ran over. I grabbed his arm to yank him up. And...And he" she swallowed. "Fell."

Booth nodded. "Wolf filled me in. He didn't think there was anything you could do."

Cat snorted. "Wolf wasn't there. He didn't see" she shivered. "Dog's eyes. They gazed up at me liked I'd betrayed him by catching him."

She turned too gazed at Booth.

"I don't know whether he slipped though my hands, or just let go or..." she swallowed again. "I let him go."

She gazed more moodily into her glass.

"For what it's worth," Booth said slowly, "I know what you're going though." He summarised the events of Howard Epps.

Cat shrugged. "Sounds like a good riddance" she said. Booth shrugged.

"I can remember, "He said, gazing at Cat's glass. "Every kill. There were 49. Epps makes 50."

"Nice round number." Cat said, attempting to joke. She stopped at the look on Booth's face.

"Surprised they didn't send you to a sink. Only reason they didn't with me was cos I let them think Dog fell with the terrorist."

"They did." Booth admitted. "But not for that."

Cat gazed at him surprised.

"I shot a clown."

"You what?"

"You know those plastic speaker things they have on top of ice cream trucks?" Cat nodded.

"I shot one of those."

Cat burst out laughing, surprising several of the bar's other patrons.

"You didn't."

Booth nodded. She laughed again, the smile he remembered spreading across her face.

"Truce?" she asked holding out her hand.

"Truce." Booth said, grabbing it. Cat got up, chucking a couple of dollars on the bar.

"Come on." She said. "I need to brief your squints on the other cases."


	6. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: Bones and all related characters are property of Fox, Hart Hanson and Kathy Reichs. Wolf is based on a character in the Alex Rider series and as such is copyright to the author. Cat is my own creation. This is a work of fan fic, so no profits are made**

**Author's note. Sorry for not updating for a while and that this chapter is so short. I am doing my best to make them longer, but am hampered by the busyness of the season and by a bad case of writers block, so ideas are not unwelcome. Reviews make the work go faster (hint, hint). Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far and to anyone whose joined us more recently enjoy!**

Chapter 5

"First victim that we know of was Jean Luc Picard. 22 when he left there, 34 at death. Left the service, married to his partner of as many years," Cat glanced down at the documents in her folder.

"Claud. Was living in America, New Orleans to be exact, where Claud apparently came from. Killed by a sniper 12th Jan of this year. Death thought to be a copy cat of New York sniper."

"Second victim, Paul Carter. Aged 31. Left Kosovo in 1995, after an incident involving a landmine cost him both of his legs. Was living in sheltered accommodation in Britain, unmarried and no evidence of girl or boy friends."  
"Poor kid" Wolf grunted. Cat nodded and noticing the confusion on the Squints faces offered,

"Ex-SAS. They look after their own. Killed by pistol shot to the head. Sound the same thing, but believe me, very different. Initially written off as a burglary gone wrong, but an answering machine tape was found with the nursery rhyme on it.

"No reason to connect the two cases, except that I was talking to a friend of mine in the Parisian police, and he mentioned that the same facts about a case he was working on.

"Mohammed Al Bin. Our oldest so far at 46. Career soldier, killed in an explosion in the Algerian quarter, initially thought to be the work of terrorists, but then a tape was found and his fiancée, A"

she glanced at the notes again. 

"Ms. Tahmina, second name I'm not even going to attempt, said he'd nearly killed a kid two weeks early for that very song."

She sighed.

"That's when I raised the possibility of a serial killer on our hands. Was lucky not to be laughed out of a job. Then Liza Piercer, turned up"

"Liza was a 33 year old widow from Kosovo. Her husband fought as an Albanian rebel in the war, and it was there they met. When the war ended she decided to remain and help rebuild. Got married, perfectly happy life, until April 20th. Then her husband was found. He'd been missing for 8 days, and was found in a disused building. He'd been killed by been gassed. Hydrogen Cyanide. The tape was still playing in loop when they found him. Tape player was American, fairly modern too." She sighed, "And that was all we had till Cobra.

"There is of course still a chance that this will turn out to be coincidence, but..."

"The odds of that are gargantuan ." Zac volunteered. Cat nodded.

"I've got autopsy reports and the investigations into all the victims, plus what I could get from their country's intelligence services."  
Noticing the shocked look on Booth's face she added, "You don't know how high her clearance is. That's all we're likely to get on the evidence at the minute. As was pointed out to me, the war was over 12 years ago, and the files of the province in question are still sealed."

A tech bustled in as the phone rang.  
"Ignore it." Brennan advised, while taking the reports from Cat. The machine clicked and whirled to acknowledge it, and then a voice was heard all over the 

lab, a voice to chill the bones to mortuary steel. It was impossible to tell whether it was male or female, so soft was it. Yet the intent to harm resonated in every letter. It was a voice that sounded like it came from hell.

"_The grand old duke of York_

_He had ten thousand me._

_He marched them up to the top of the hill,_

_And he marched them down again._

_And when they were up they were up,_

_And when they were down they were down,_

_And when they were only half way up they were neither up nor down._

_And when they were up they were up,_

_And when they were down they were DOWN!"  
_A tray of instruments clattered from the tech's hands, but no one noticed it. All were frozen in horror at the voice. Cat, Wolf and Booth just gazed at the machine. It was a few minutes before they dared lift their heads and read the identical expressions of fear on each other's faces.


End file.
